The unprecedented turnout of voters in the just concluded Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh has prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s State unit to evaluate its overall performance amidst growing anxiety in political circles over who will have the last laugh on the day of counting on December 8.
The Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh were held in two phase on November 11 and 19 amid sporadic violence in the restive Baster region during the first phase where Maoists attempted to create panic among voters and disrupt polls. A meeting of senior State-level BJP leaders, candidates and the party’s poll managers of all the 90 seats have been convened in the State BJP headquarters on Thursday by Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh to sit and deliberate on issues where the party immensely scored over the Opposition compared to visible indication of the party losing in certain constituencies. Party sources here said that the leaders would also carry out an analysis of the number of seats expected to be won by the party to score a hatrick win even in the worst case scenario in the Assembly polls.
A plethora of issues including rebellion in the party coupled with some of the candidates who fought as independents after resigning from the party in the polls after being denied a ticket is expected to be part of the discussion in the meeting. One of the prime issues in the agenda would be to gather feedback from candidates from key constituencies alongwith those where the Congress party had fielded stronger candidates, sources informed.
The minutes of the meeting would later be sent to the party’s central leadership for providing them an overview of how the party has performed during the recently concluded polls in the State. The other significant issue expected to come under wide discussion in the meeting is how the party has performed in the 12 Assembly seats in Bastar where large number of women had turned out to vote despite threats issued by the insurgents.
The party, sources said, is adopting a ‘wait and watch’ policy before taking action against the rebels who worked against the party’s interests in the Assembly polls. The political think tank in Raipur is of the opinion that the huge turnout of voters particularly of women and youth in large numbers would clearly decide who forms the next Government in State. As for now, they say, both the parties — the BJP and the Congress would have their own versions of explaining why women and youth voted in such large numbers in the polls.